Transcript: Week 9 Overview

Welcome to our new week!

Now more than ever, as you work to complete the major written assignment from our last unit while beginning a brand new unit of study, you will need to make every effort to manage your time and your workload with great thought and care.

With regard to the Unit 2 essay, due during the beginning of this week, let me give you a quick word of advice. I cannot begin to tell you how important it is that you watch the Essay 2 Feedback Resource Video. It’s only 11-minutes in length and much shorter than any lecture you might have in a seated class. The video covers not only the most common problems students have demonstrated in their draft submissions, but it also offers specific revision strategies to address those problems. Please, don’t miss out on this valuable resource!

I also encourage you to take a second look at the feedback that was offered to you on your graded, Summary/Analysis assignment. Although that early writing assignment did not require you to write a “standard” academic essay, like the one you are submitting this week, it did require you to compose standard-academic body paragraphs. With that in mind, you should use the feedback you received on that early assignment to guide your revision and continued development of the body paragraphs within your effects-based argument essay.

At this point in the semester, I hope you are recognizing that none of the writing you do in this class is mere “busywork.” In fact, most of the writing we do builds upon the previous, allowing you to practice and apply skills that will help you grow as a writer of standard academic essays. Theeffects-based argument essay you will submit this week is worth 20% of your total course grade. That’s a big chunk of your grade; and for some, success on this essay will have a significant influence on their ability to pass the course.

Looking ahead to mid-week, we will begin Unit 3, and the topics we will cover are interesting for sure, but you’ll learn more about those later in the week! While Unit 3 expects you to demonstrate continued mastery of standard, academic essay writing, it also expects you to develop further your ability to incorporate outside source material into your own ideas and arguments. With those goals in mind, our new unit will delve into research-based argument, adding internet research methods to our continuing study and work with source integration.

I wish you all a productive and successful week!